Psychosomatic, Anxiety and Impulse Control disorders

The programme of psychosomatic, anxiety and impulse control disorders is focused on epidemiological, clinical and basic research into a wide range of mental disorders and conditions which have a major impact on people’s mental health and psychological wellbeing. Research is done into ageing and dementias, pain, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, personality disorders, suicidal behaviour. Support for this group of research is useful for understanding and assisting treatment and prevention of the aforementioned diseases.

What types of studies are carried out in this programme? The studies on the aforementioned diseases are highly varied and include genetic, biochemical, clinical, therapeutic and epidemiological aspects. Some examples of the work done in this programme are learning the factors connected with suicidal conducts, which may help to identify and prevent these, the brain circuits connected with obsessive-compulsive disorder, biochemical mechanisms related with pain, the risk of evolution into dementia during ageing, or the prevalence of mental disorders and their impact on people’s functioning.